The final part of the travel blog/trip report follows the final leg of my journey from New York Newark to London Heathrow.

Leg 7 New York Newark to London Heathrow

It was inevitable that this flight would come, the last of the trip. As always though it was great to be flying home and it was this leg I was anticipating the most. Continental Airlines have recently upgraded their Business Class product and I was secretly hoping the aircraft that would operate my flight would be refitted with these seats. However I checked the previous day in San Jose when I had internet access and saw this flight would be operated by Ship #002 inbound from Tokyo Narita (NRT) so it was not to be. The whole flight experience I had with Continental Airlines was fantastic, so much so that I will be keeping them on top of my list of preferred carriers for future trips. I guess the key to whether that will continue is when I sample their Economy product but from reading many trip reports and comments online I should expect a much more superior product in Y with CO than I would get with UA/US. My alliance alignment is with the Star Alliance so even though BA/AA/VS may provide a better Y class product my concern is with Star Alliance carriers.

As this was anight flight there are not too many images from the flight, more pictures are from the time I spent in New York City:

Early morning start and the first port of call was Central Park, with added snow!

After a short walk down 5th Avenue I stopped by the Rockafella Centre.

After trekking further down 5th Avenue it was time for breakfast opposite Grand Central Station.

A quick pop inside Grand Central Station and then I headed down to the Subway.

Got the subway down to the Brooklyn Bridge/City Hall.

Walked almost up to the first bridge support but didn't have time to go all the way across.

Then I went to the 'Ground Zero', a site I always visit when in New York to pay my respects. This time I managed to visit the closest fire station to the WTC. Here is a memorial to the NYFD who perished in the atrocity.

Brass memorial by the side of the fire station.

'May We Never Forget'. Damn right.

Ground Zero today, work is well under way for new buildings and the memorial gardens which I hope to visit once they are finished.

Once I had visited Ground Zero I headed to Pumphouse Park for a walk down to Battery Park. You cant go to this part of

NYC without seeing a squirrel.

A typical NYC scene near Battery Park.

Brooklyn/Battery Tunnel ventilation, a well known building from the film Men In Black.

The Sphere 9/11 memorial in Battery Park. This once stood in the middle of the Austin Tobin Plaza which was right in the middle of WTC 1 and WTC 2. It was not fixed in any way before been placed here with an eternal flame for the victims of that day.

On my way back through Times Square heading to the hotel.

The Park Hotel I stayed in while in New York.

I had only booked a hotel 'car' back to Newark, however it seemed they only had a limo spare, great!

Aircraft parked up at Newark airport taken from the Continental Airlines Presidents Club. The aircraft on the left would fly me back to London Heathrow.

Me settling in for a 6 hour 9 minute flight.

As the remainder of the flight was in darkness I didn't take any more pictures with the point and shoot camera and had to rely on my iPhone. I will share some selected iPhone images in a blog at a later date. So this concludes my Costa Rica trip...until next time!

Many thanks for spending the time viewing this travel blog/trip report. Hopefully I shall be able to post more reports in the future and if you have any questions or comments they are more than welcome!

It was ok, certainly better than Y so I cant complain. Still a long way off the other C class products I have used including the new UA C as well as NZ Business Premier on the 744. However the service was fantastic and certainly one of the best I have experienced in a long time.

Thanks, my first visit to Ground Zero was back in 2005 and I still get the same feeling now as I did back then even after multiple visits over the years. If I get time I may share more pictures that I took around Liberty Street.